The 3 key benefits of using social media, like Facebook and Twitter:

1) Social media helps you stay connected to your constituents

2) Social media is establishing itself as a dominant medium

3) Social media allows you to control your message

Before using social media as a state official, please review some of the resources detailing the risks associated with using these tools on the Informative Links page.

Staying connected with constituents

Social media is about relationships, and Facebook and Twitter allow you to easily communicate and maintain a relationship with your constituents.

You can easily see what your constituents are interested in by seeing what they post in their Facebook newsfeeds and“tweets,” or even learn about events they are hosting or attending.

You can be more accessible and transparent to your constituents with these new tools.

Social media is becoming an established media channel

Social media is growing faster than any other form of media, including e-mail.

By 2010, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers and 96 percent of them have joined a social network.

It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users; it took television 13 years to reach the same. But Facebook? It added 100 million users in less than nine months.

Being engaged in social media allows you to control your message

When an issue arises that you should address, people in your social media network will look to you for an official response—and they can find it on your Facebook page or Twitter account.

A controversy or rumor may very well develop on social media without your consent, and if you aren’t on social media, you will be unable to use your official voice to influence that conversation or squash the issue.

When a constituent is honestly critical of you and expresses that through a comment on social media, you can answer it respectfully. (If a comment is mean-spirited or ugly, just ignore it.)